In recent years, researchers have proposed and implemented so called “polar” architectures for the improved transmission of signals. These polar architectures, rather than using complex In-phase Quadrature (IQ) components of a data signal, operate by using the polar coordinates of the data signal. Accordingly, polar implementations of modulation circuitry are used to transmit and receive voice and/or data in the radio frequency (RF) bands of the communications spectrum. Polar implementations have a number of advantages over their IQ-based counterparts.
Regardless of implementation type, modern modulation circuits use transistor devices among their electronic components for the switching of electric current. These transistor devices include bipolar junction transistors (BJT), and metal oxide semiconductors (MOS) such as field effect transistors (MOSFET). These families of transistor devices further include a number of more specific devices, such as, for example, complementary-MOS (CMOS), n-type MOS (NMOS), and p-type MOS (PMOS). Each transistor type has a variety of benefits in implementation.
CMOS-type semiconductors typically are also known to have a voltage drop across a P-N junction. The P-N junction is responsible in part for the particular properties of that transistor. During usual transistor device operation, typical voltage drops are on the order of approximately 1.0 volt or less.
However, conditions arise in which a greater than expected voltage is applied across the P-N junction of a transistor, such as periods of high power supply charge, electrostatic discharge (ESD) events, and/or other high voltage conditions. During these higher voltage conditions, the properties of the P-N junction change such that the transistor device “breaks down” or fails in operation. For example, the increased voltage causes an undesirable amount of electron tunneling and/or positive charge holing, across the P-N junction.